


Together With You

by SteveLovesBucky



Series: Time Heals All Wounds [2]
Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Big Damn Hero Steve Rogers, Bucky Barnes/Steve Rogers Feels, Civil War Fix-It, Crying Bucky Barnes, Established Bucky Barnes/Steve Rogers, Established Relationship, Everybody Lives, Fix-It, Fix-It of Sorts, Healing, Idiots in Love, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Men Crying, Minor Wanda Maximoff/Vision, Not Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, One True Pairing, Pietro Maximoff Lives, Post-Canon Fix-It, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Protective Bucky Barnes, Protective Sam Wilson, Protective Steve Rogers, Reunited and It Feels So Good, Sam Wilson Is a Good Bro, Sam Wilson is So Done, Sam Wilson is a Saint, Songfic, Steve Rogers Cries, Steve Rogers crushes HYDRA, Steve Rogers is Not Hydra, Sweet Vision (Marvel), Time Travel Fix-It, Vision (Marvel) Lives
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-26
Updated: 2020-05-26
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:54:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,189
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24391648
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SteveLovesBucky/pseuds/SteveLovesBucky
Summary: When Steve takes longer than expected to return the Infinity Stones, Bucky's patience and nerves are tested as his worry runs wild and Sam is barely able to keep him grounded.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes & Sam Wilson, James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers, Steve Rogers & Sam Wilson, Wanda Maximoff & Steve Rogers, Wanda Maximoff/Vision
Series: Time Heals All Wounds [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1761274
Comments: 7
Kudos: 44





	Together With You

**Author's Note:**

> None of these characters are mine.
> 
> This is what I wanted to happen for Steve and Bucky. Steve had only just gotten Bucky back and then he just abandoned him after returning the Infinity Stones to their rightful places? Peggy had moved on and Bucky clearly needed Steve far more. I understand the technicalities of contracts and canon and what have you, that they would not end up together canonically, but it still breaks my heart.
> 
> I never believed the "romance" between Steve or any of his canonical love interests (Peggy, Sharon, etc) when I saw just how much that Bucky means to him. They just seemed so contrived to me while the bond between him and Bucky captivated me. Alessandro Safina's song "Insieme A Te" ("Together With You") is perfect for them.
> 
> While I was at it, I wanted to see Wanda and Vision reunited.

Bucky could not remember the last time that he had felt so intense. Or so empty.

Steve, who had always agreed that they would be together “’til the end of the line,” had just left him. He knew that Steve had to return the Infinity Stones to their rightful places, where they would be protected from future predators, but it meant nothing to him now as the time portal remained static and nobody, familiar or stranger, emerged from it. 

Bucky knew that Steve wouldn’t return to the 1940s to be with Peggy; Steve had made abundantly clear to him that Peggy was a friend, a kindred spirit. His worst fears were that Steve had been captured or killed because of his damned sense of honor. 

“Barnes? Barnes, can you hear me…?” Sam’s voice sounded far away even though he was standing right beside him, _“Barnes, tell me if you’re all right…!”_

No. No Sam, he wasn’t all right. He was sure that his heart had just been shattered by the very man that he loved more than he had ever loved anybody.

Steve had always been intrigued by Peggy, but Bucky knew that there was never anything beyond friendship between them. She was a woman who had to fight her way to win her position in a man’s profession while Steve was blessed with great integrity and honor and cursed with a small, sickly body. It was a bond of kindred spirits who understood the struggle, as outsiders, to earn the position that they wanted and believed in. 

And Steve just could never back down from doing what was right, could never back down from any fight that seemed justified. Bucky had hoped after the serum that it would soften things, that he would no longer have to patch Steve up after a fight. That Steve would stop with his defense of any honorable cause. Never mind that he and Steve were thoroughly devoted to each other, never mind Steve’s watery gaze as he looked into Bucky’s eyes before departing, Bucky knew that he could never quash that drive for justice. 

His jaw was clenched and he was afraid to even breathe. While he knew that it was safer now for men like him and Steve, Bucky could not allow himself to break down. 

The two soldiers out of their own time, the two boys from Brooklyn, shared an intense kiss before Steve stepped into the time machine. 

_“It’s not goodbye, Bucky,”_ Steve had whispered into Bucky’s hair as they desperately held each other, “It’s only in case something goes awry with the machine.”

 _“I know, Stevie,”_ Bucky tried to keep his voice steady, frightened that Steve might try to pull some heroic stunt and find himself in trouble again.

_“Don’t you do anything stupid ‘til I get back.”_

_“How can I? You’re taking all the stupid with you,”_ Bucky was sure that those would be his last words to Steve and the implications agonized him, despite his valiant efforts to wear a brave face. Steve knew all the same; Bucky's eyes gave away his true feelings. 

_"I love you, Bucky,"_ Steve's voice was soft and trembled.

 _"I love you, Steve...!"_ Bucky murmured as Steve stepped into the portal.

_Seguo il percorso del vento **(I follow the wind)**  
Toglie il respiro pensare un pò a te **(And breathlessly realize)**  
Che ancora a dispetto del tempo cammini con me **(That we are still together after all this time)**  
Noi siamo stati 2 amanti 2 amici 2 complici 2 buone idee **(We are two lovers, two friends, two companions, two good ideas)**  
Navigatori 2 vele nell' eternità **(Two sailors on the ship to eternity)**  
Vago nell' anima tua ma senza fermarmi perché vuoi cosi **(I unremittingly penetrate your soul, since you ask that of me)**  
'Non vuoi che rinunci alla mia soltanto perché tu sei qui **(Without losing myself in you just because you are there)**  
Dimmi chi sei **(Tell me who you are)**  
Che stradda farai **(Tell me where you're going)**  
So che è la stessa che m'inventerei per noi **(Because wherever that is, I will go with you)**_

Even when Bucky was sure that he was beyond redemption as the Winter Soldier, Steve had stood right beside him to encourage him along. His shattered psyche actually began to heal with the care that Steve religiously lavished on Bucky as much as he could. 

While they remained lost boys out of their own time, Steve and Bucky had eagerly welcomed some aspects of the 21st century. They could kiss each other and show affection to each other in public with far less fear for their own safety. Bucky was over the moon when they had learned about the advances in LGBTQ rights since their own time, even though few people in their day used such labels and the nuances were still new to them. 

And, for all the barriers that fate kept throwing between them, Steve and Bucky had not let that stop them from loving each other, making the most of their time together in the precious moments when they were not cruelly torn away from each other. 

Now it seemed to Bucky that it had happened again. Steve would not had abandoned him so soon after they had been reunited. He already suspected that Steve was trying heroic measures again.

_Insieme a te giorno per giorno **(I walk beside you, day after day)**  
Camminerò estate e inverno **(Summer and winter together with you)**  
Più non avrò sete nell' anima **(My thirsting soul is quenched)**  
Perché tu sei d'acqua e di musica **(Because you are the water and music)**  
Di fuoco e d'estasi **(The fire and ecstasy)**  
Di verità **(The truth)**  
Di fantasia **(The fantasy)**  
Senza rimpianti **(Without regrets)**  
La via dei canti io seguirò **(I follow the path to bliss)**_

The minutes ticked on and, while Sam and Bucky knew that this would not be unexpected and that it was too early to panic, Bucky’s mind was already going to the worst-case scenario.

 _“I was by your side since we were just kids”,_ , Bucky thought as bitterness began to seep into him, although the bitterness was nothing compared to the anguish that he might have lost Steve. 

Happiness. He just wanted Steve to be happy. Bucky figured that as long as that was the case, he would be happy. But through it all, deep inside, he knew that it just wasn’t true.

Steve had wanted so much to make a difference for humanity, wanted so much to fight for what was right even when he was just a scrappy little invalid who was too stubborn to refuse a fight. Bucky was always terrified that Steve's luck would run out one day and his old impulse to protect Steve took over.

“I’m going in after him-!” Bucky declared instinctively.

“Barnes, are you sure that’s a good idea?” Sam stepped in front of the former Winter Soldier, trying to restrain an increasingly distraught Bucky Barnes.

“Let me go! I’m going after him,” Bucky snapped.

“Stand down, Barnes,” Sam tried as calmly as possible, “Don’t pull this BS now. There’s any number of reasons why he’s late.”

Bucky’s anger dueled with his anguish, and though the soldier in him screamed to cry later he knew that he was losing his nerve.

 _“He’s my whole world…!!!”_ something primal erupted from Bucky’s throat, born of pain that had festered into desperation after outside forces had conspired to keep him and Steve apart, time and again, _“YOU SWORE THAT IT WAS ‘TIL THE END OF THE LINE, YOU DAMNED PUNK…!”_

“He only just got you back, Barnes,” Sam’s patience was beginning to crumble, “You know that he wouldn’t just leave you like that,” but Bucky hardly seemed to hear him.

_Sento il passagio del tempo e vivo contento di quello che ho **(I feel time passing and I'm happy with what I have)**  
Con gli occhi della memoria ti accarezzerò **(I look back on my life with you with fondness)**  
Ma tu sei futuro e radici e quello che dici mi mostra la via **(You are the future and show me the way)**  
Il canto da il nome alla terra che percorrerò **(The way to happiness and the way I follow)**  
Dimmi chi sei **(Tell me who you are)**  
E' come farò **(What will become of me)**  
Per ritrovarmi quando non sarai con me **(When you are no longer with me)**_

“Barnes, you arm-! Look-!!!” Sam looked shocked as he caught sight of Bucky’s left arm.

It was soon Bucky’s turn to gape; his arm had become flesh again. Not a hint of metal remained. He beheld a hand that he knew, beyond doubt, was his own once more. “Are you shittin’ me-?!” Bucky couldn’t believe what he was seeing, “How is this…?”

Then it hit him: Steve. His knight-in-shining-armor who never knew when to stand down from a fight had done it again, somehow. His memories of the fall from the train, all the assassinations that he was forced to carry out, and the decades of exploitation and brainwashing by HYDRA were being replaced by nicer memories.

“If you come home now, I’ll punish you later, Steve…!” Bucky grumbled, as frustrated as he was touched by the gesture.

“Barnes, look-!”

Sam’s voice alerted Bucky to renewed activity from the time portal. A voice, distant and a bit distorted, emanated from the portal. But Bucky had no doubt about who it was.

“That’s his voice, Sam-!” 

“I know, man,” Sam answered, “I think it’d be wrong to walk away from this.”

“Bucky, I’ve fixed everything for us-!” 

Bucky’s anger over Steve’s chronic hero syndrome was temporarily forgotten as he saw a familiar shape materialize. He couldn’t help that he was going weak in the knees.

Steve stepped across the threshold, wearing an exhausted but triumphant smile as he emerged. But he quickly dropped the smile when he saw the exhausted sorrow on Bucky's face. 

Gingerly, he made his way to Bucky, eyes watery, arms open, “Bucky, sweetheart…!”

The impact of their desperate embrace nearly knocked them off their feet, but neither cared. Bucky suddenly realized that he was sobbing. He couldn’t help himself, not when he had been so sure that Steve might not return to him. And he kissed Steve all the more frantically.

“Bucky-! Oh, sweetie don’t cry-!” Steve had tears streaming over his own cheeks as he rocked with Bucky, stroking his hair, causing joyous shivers from Bucky, “Shh, it’s over. Nobody will ever hurt you again.”

“Stevie…! You’re here…! You- you didn’t-!” Bucky’s hands darted across Steve’s face after several eager kisses, frantic to know that he wasn’t dreaming, “I thought that you’d…!”

“I stopped to speak with Peggy. She helped me in a more elaborate plan than we originally called for.”

“More elaborate? Would it have anything to do with the fact that I have my left arm again?” Bucky’s anger began to reawaken as he heard Steve confess this.

“I know that it’s wrong to mess with what has already happened, but I wanted so much to set things right for you. Zola died that day on the train instead of you. HYDRA died with him and Schmidt,” Steve gazed earnestly into Bucky’s eyes, stroking his face, “Peggy and Howard had to help me make some complex maneuvers for this all to work, but I just had to heal you of everything that HYDRA did to you-!”

“By refusing to back down from a fight that could have gotten you captured or killed or both?” Bucky replied, too shaken by that admission to immediately appreciate the gesture, “I swear you have a death wish, punk-!”

“Jerk,” Steve retorted, “It wasn’t without danger, but I just had to destroy HYDRA for all that they did to you. And you just don’t seem grateful for that-!”

“Because you could’ve been killed and I’d have to go on without you,” Bucky's voice was angry, but his eyes were tormented and watery.

“And I wasn’t. I did it because I love you and I want to see you happy,” Steve’s defensive expression faltered, “You’re welcome to scold me however you want later, I just want to celebrate this with you now. You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me…!”

Bucky’s irritation melted with Steve’s defense. He would save the tirade for later; for the moment, he was too happy that Steve was with him again and that they were free of HYDRA.

“And you’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me, Babe…!” Bucky’s expression and voice were tender again, his eyes glassy.

“I love you, Soldier…!” Steve’s big blue eyes were also watery, his voice trembling as he began to drop to one knee, his hands interlaced with Bucky’s hands.

Bucky felt his eyes widen incredulously. Was he dreaming?

“Bucky, I have lost you more times than I have ever expected to happen. I don’t know what the future holds for us, whether we will see more hardships or less, but all I know is that I want to experience all of it with you…” Steve’s voice still quivered as he gazed beseechingly into Bucky’s disbelieving eyes but he clenched his jaw and continued, “I should have done this a long time ago…! If anything, I want us both tied down and hitched together before any other disasters." 

Bucky smiled at the last comment, although both of them knew that they were not safe from further sabotage. 

"Whatever happens, I want the world to know that we are together ‘til the end of the line… in the eyes of the law and otherwise. James Buchanan Barnes… my Bucky… will you make me the happiest man in the world and marry me?”

Producing a tiny box from his suit, Steve opened it and presented his mother's ring to Bucky. Bucky had not seen Sarah Rogers' ring in decades and memories washed over him.

“Would you, Buck…? We can have it resized, if we have to. Ma would be proud if you wore it... I would be over the moon if you did,” Steve looked pained at the silence.

Trying unsuccessfully to bite back a sob, Bucky nodded enthusiastically. As much as he wanted to scream _**“YES!!!!!!”**_ to the skies, he was effectively speechless and could only manage a strangled and meek _“yes…!”_.

Joyous tears poured over their cheeks as they laughed in relief. Steve and Bucky crashed their lips together as they poured every drop of desperation and passion for each other into their kiss. Steve enveloped Bucky in a bear hug, twirling with him as they kissed.

“Get a room, you two-!” Sam’s voice cut through their reverie, “Do I always have to be the third wheel in your story?”

“Oh, shut up Wilson-!” Bucky laughed in relief as he and Steve embraced Sam.

The three of them laughed as they huddled together, feeling a great weight lifted from their shoulders as they enjoyed the moment.

“I caught all your proposal on my iPhone, soldiers,” Sam teased, “Wait ‘til the rest of the team finds out about this!”

“What? Sam, we were having a private-!” Steve stopped himself in the middle of that protest, remembering that he and Bucky had been too absorbed in their own private drama to remember that Sam was standing right in front of them. 

“Sure we were, Babe,” Bucky reverted to his usual sass, although he couldn’t stop his ecstatic smile. 

“Yeah Steve, about as private as Tony is discrete, “ Sam couldn’t help his own sarcasm before he gestured to the jewelry box in Steve’s clenched hand. 

“Well…? Does the ring even fit?” Sam reminded the newly engaged couple of the heirloom jewelry that sat in the tiny box, “I’d hate to think that you’d need to resize it, Rogers.”

Hastily pulling the ring from its mount, Steve gingerly placed it on Bucky’s left ring finger, startled as he saw it glow red and expand to the size of Bucky's finger. 

"Wanda???" Bucky's amused surprise called Steve's attention toward Sam. Wanda, her hands extended in a spell, she stood proudly with Vision beside her, his arm draped over her shoulder. 

"You're welcome, boys," she replied with a sly smile. "Congratulations, gentlemen!" Vision sounded as radiant as he looked. 

Steve beamed at them gratefully in return and returned his attention to Bucky. Both of them shivering at the sensation that they had only dreamed of, with Steve rejoicing that Bucky’s mangled body was healed and whole again.

The ring slid onto Bucky’s finger like a charm.

New tears streaked their faces and Steve lovingly kissed the soft skin of Bucky’s recovered hand before placing more kisses on his lips. It was a perfect fit.

\-----

"I never want to let go of you, Bucky," Steve murmured into Bucky's hair as they cuddled that night, "I'm still scared that I'll wake up and you'll be gone."

"I never want to let go of you, Babe," Bucky answered as he nuzzled into Steve's neck, "But you don't have to hold on so tightly. Let me breathe a little."

"Sorry," Steve eased his embrace, but kept it firm as he gazed down at Bucky, who raised his gaze to meet Steve's, "Fate has just conspired to keep us apart from each other for too long. Even when I had nothing, I had you. I'd gladly choose that instead of living in luxury without you."

"I'd be happy living in a tenement in Brooklyn or who knows where if it meant that we could face the world together," Bucky crooned as he leaned in for a quick peck on the lips, finishing by rubbing noses. 

Steve's lazy smile and chuckle proved contagious for Bucky, "Gosh, I've missed that laugh! You're so cute when you smile, Stevie."

"I've missed your smile too, Soldier," Steve stroked his thumb over Bucky's cheek, "I want to hear you laugh again, myself. And I want to make that happen for the rest of my life." 

Bucky blushed, "I love you, Babe...!"

"I love you, too...!" Steve murmured before Bucky tucked his head back into the crook of Steve's neck.

For the first time in years, they both felt safe, like they were two boys growing up in Brooklyn again. The burdens that had been hanging from them were gone.

"I'm ready to face the world with you, Soldier," Steve was giddy as he nuzzled into Bucky, elatedly relieved that the man he loved more than anybody was in his arms again.

_Insieme a te giorno per giorno **(I walk beside you, day after day)**  
Camminerò estate e inverno **(Summer and winter together with you)**  
Più non avrò sete nell' anima **(My thirsting soul is quenched)**  
Perché tu sei d'acqua e di musica **(Because you are the water and music)**  
Di fuoco e d'estasi **(The fire and the ecstasy)**  
Di verità **(The truth)**  
Di fantasia **(The fantasy)**  
Di libertà **(The freedom)**  
E di poesia **(And the poetry)**  
Imparerò **(I will learn)**  
Saprò chi sei **(I will know who you are)**  
Senza rimpianti **(Without regrets)**  
La via dei canti io seguirò **(I follow the path to bliss)**_

Fin.


End file.
